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There is a large and passionate debate going on in our society on the future of the car, mostly revolving around the vehicle drivetrain. However, there is a larger issue that will apply to every vehicle in the future, regardless of the motive force under the hood. That issue is the development of the connected car and its related infrastructure. This connectivity is inevitable. Cars are one of the few areas in society being impacted by every single disruptive technical advance being commercialized today from advanced power electronics to autonomous intelligent systems. Add cloud connectivity required for the vehicle infotainment and navigation systems, and you have the building blocks of a smart traffic environment.

Persistent Systems, LLC (“Persistent”), a leader in mobile ad hoc network (MANET) solutions, announced today that it has successfully completed Phase I of the U.S. Army Robotic Combat Vehicles (RCV) program. Run under the auspices of the Army Future Command’s Next Generation Combat Vehicles – Cross Functional Team, the RCV program aims to show the utility of manned-unmanned teaming with a future Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) being able to control multiple RCV “wingmen.”

Creomagic’s high-speed cognitive wireless mesh connectivity solutions provide high-reliability coverage without the need for permanent infrastructure or a centralized point of failure. The MANET (Mobile Ad-Hoc Network) radio systems are ideal for first responder and defense applications and can be incorporated into a variety of unmanned systems and robotics.

ESP32 offered so much more than the ESP8266, and most importantly it was also affordable. With support for Bluetooth and WiFi, ESP32 was to open a new frontier for the development of Internet of Things applications. A major drawback of the affordable ESP32 was the lack of official support of mesh network for the chip, something that was easily possible with the ESP8266.

U.S. Army leaders say the next war will be fought in mega-cities, but the service has embarked on an ambitious effort to prepare most of its combat brigades to fight, not inside, but beneath them. Late last year, the Army launched an accelerated effort that funnels some $572 million into training and equipping 26 of its 31 active combat brigades to fight in large-scale subterranean facilities that exist beneath dense urban areas around the world.

The Tomahawk Robotics Kinesis common control system will be made available for Persistent’s MPU5 Android-based MANET radio and Rugged Display and Controller (RDC)

Sonnet brings the long-range wireless communication of the walkie-talkie to the smartphone. It connects to your smartphone via Wi-Fi, and it will relay any data sent from your phone to other Sonnet devices via the long-range radio wave. This completely removes your smartphones’ dependency on cellular grid and other network infrastructure, and allows it to be used even when you have no cellular connectivity or internet access.